System and method for tracking individuals

ABSTRACT

A system and method of tracking individuals divided into flocks by means of radio communication and positioning systems is disclosed. A flock leader is provided with a first electronic device ( 1 ) comprising a first transceiver ( 2 ) operating in a public radio communication network, e.g. GSM or GPRS, a position tracker ( 3 ), e.g. a GPS-receiver, and a second transceiver ( 4 ) operating in a short distance radio communication system, e.g. Bluetooth®. Each of the remaining individuals in the flock is provided with a second electronic device ( 6 ) comprising at least a third transceiver ( 7 ) also operating in the short distance radio communication system. The second electronic device ( 6 ) periodically transmits data identifying the associated individual to the first electronic device ( 1 ), so that the flock leader knows that the individual is localized in the flock (i.e. within the coverage area of the short distance radio communication system) as long as it receives the data. The first electronic device ( 1 ) communicates with a system controller through a public radio communication network managing the system and keeping track of the individuals in each flock.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to tracking of individuals in a flock bymeans of radio communication and positioning systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As long as livestock farming has existed, it has always been necessaryto herd animals, protecting them against predators and accidents, andkeeping them together for making the loss of animals as low as possible.

Even today, traditional herding, which has been used for thousands ofyears where one or more persons always follow the flock as long as theyare on free pasture, is the most common.

Naturally, this old fashioned herding is very expensive as itcontinuously occupies human recourses in a very ineffective way. This isthe reason why many farmers have decided to skip herding, but, as aconsequence, by the end of the season the loss of animals has beenconsiderable. However, there is an increasing demand in the publicopinion for high food quality, but also for a good treatment of theanimals in their lifetime.

One way of remotely tracking animals is to place a VHF radio transmitteron the individual animals of interest and determining their approximatepositions based upon the signal strength of the radio signals from thetransmitter at a receiver. This solution has traditionally been used forscientific purposes on wild individual animals. It is not designed forcollecting data other than for an approximate position, and eachmonitored individual animal must be provided with a long distancetransmitter, which will be relatively expensive for a whole flock.Besides, a transmitter also transmitting additional condition data,e.g., body temperature and humidity, would be rather heavy.

From U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,868,100 and 5,791,294, U.S. patent application2002/0021219 and European patent application EP 945060 there are known anumber of more or less similar systems for tracking and monitoringanimals. Each monitored animal is wearing an electronic devicecomprising communication and positioning equipment. The positioningequipment is a GPS unit. Such devices tend to become heavy and aretherefore not suited for young animals. In addition, the devices arecostly. Thus, such systems are less applicable for tracking andmonitoring flocks of livestock; they are used nearly exclusively formonitoring single individual animals for scientific purposes.

Consequently, there is a need for a system remotely tracking animals ina flock with a minimum of heavy equipment and with the possibility ofmonitoring the condition and health of the animals.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and methodwhich allows monitoring of all animals of a flock with only a cheap andsimple short distance transceiver (e.g. as an ear marker) placed on eachanimal.

Another object of the present invention is to keep track of the animalseven when they roam from one flock to another, without being regarded aslost.

The objects above is achieved in a system according to the invention fortracking individuals divided into one or more flocks, wherein at leastone individual in each flock, from now on called the flock leader, beingprovided with a first electronic device including a position tracker andradio communication equipment, in which system said radio communicationequipment includes at least a first transceiver operating in a publicradio communication network, and a second transceiver operating in ashort distance radio system, at least one other individual belonging toa flock being provided with a second electronic device, said secondelectronic device including at least a third transceiver also operatingin the short distance radio system and being arranged to communicatewith the second transceiver of said radio communication equipment, eachsecond electronic device being arranged to transmit at least anidentification code uniquely identifying said second device to a firstelectronic device present in the flock through the short distance radiosystem, thereby indicating the presence of the associated individual ina flock.

The invention also comprises a method involving to provide at least oneindividual in each flock, called the flock leader, with a firstelectronic device, said first electronic device including a positiontracker, a first transceiver operating in a public radio communicationnetwork, and a second transceiver operating in a short distance radiosystem, to provide at least one other individual belonging to a flockwith a second electronic device, said second electronic device includinga third transceiver also operating in the short distance radio system,to transmit from each second electronic device at least anidentification code uniquely identifying said second device to a firstelectronic device present in the flock through the short distance radiosystem, thereby indicating the presence of the associated individual ina flock.

Other embodiments of the invention appear from the appended dependentclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will now be described in detail in reference to theappended drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is an overview of the structure of the system according to thepresent invention,

FIG. 2 shows a collar to be worn by bell sheep,

FIG. 3 shows an ear mark to be worn by junior sheep.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following, the invention will be described in connection withanimal flocks and herding. However, the reader should keep in mind thatman is an animal species. Thus, the invention may advantageously beutilized for tracking other individuals gathered together, e.g. as asecurity system for human beings travelling in groups. The invention mayalso find application for keeping track of persons present in a buildingcomplex, and evacuating said persons in case of an emergency. For thatmeans, the invention may be used for keeping track of non-living“individuals”, e.g. in an automated stock keeping system. Therefore, theterm “individual” must be interpreted in the widest possible way,covering both living beings and inanimate objects.

The present invention takes advantage in the fact that animals onpasture tend to follow each other in a flock. Animals like sheep, cattleand reindeer are by nature gregarious animals and it is also in thefarmer's interest that the animals always stay in a flock.

The system according to the present invention comprises a main terminallocalized on the leader of the flock—from now on called the bell sheep,or alternatively on a limited number of the animals within the flock.This main terminal is preferably a terminal operating in a public radiocommunication network like GSM, GPPS, UMTS, or even WLAN. In addition, aposition tracker, preferably a GPS receiver, is integrated in the mainterminal. For communication with the other animals in the flock, themain terminal is also provided with a short distance radio transceiver,e.g. a Bluetooth® device or a device operating in the ISM frequencybands or other open frequency bands (like 433 MHz). The communicationwith the respective distributed terminals is separated according to theprotocol being used (e.g. Bluetooth® or 433 MHz protocol). The mainterminal can be worn by the bell sheep in a collar. Bluetooth® is atrademark owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. The Bluetooth® system is a shortrange radio communication system operating on 2.4 GHz.

The main terminal is illustrated in FIG. 2. The main terminal 1, alsocalled the first electronic device, includes a positioning device 2, afirst radio transceiver 3 operating in the public radio network and asecond radio transceiver 4 operating in a short range communicationsystem, as detailed above. The main terminal 1 can be fastened to a bellsheep with a collar 5. In addition, the main terminal 1 includes asource of electric power, e.g. a battery (not shown).

Each of the other animals in the flock is provided with a much simplerterminal adapted to communicate with the main terminal placed on thebell sheep by means of the chosen short distance communication system(e.g. Bluetooth® or 433 MHz). Preferably, this terminal should be smallenough to form an earmark on the animal's ear.

A possible embodiment of such a simplified terminal is shown in FIG. 3.The terminal 6 is designed as a common earmark with an embedded thirdradio transceiver 7 operating in the short range communication systemmentioned above. The terminal 6 is equipped with a power source,preferably a battery (not shown).

Each distributed terminal 6 is assigned an identification (ID) uniquelyidentifying the associated animal. The short distance radio transceiver4 in the main terminal will act as a mobile base station and portal forthe distributed terminals within the flock. The mobile base stations fora number of flocks in the system then create a dynamic piconet structureof moving coverage areas.

The distributed terminals 6 are only able to communicate with the mainterminal 1 when the respective animals are localized within the coveragearea of the main terminal 1. In other words, an animal is regarded asbeing lost from the flock when the main terminal is unable tocommunicate with the distributed terminal 6 of the respective animal.

Furthermore, the main terminal 1 may be provided with a processor and amemory for storing and processing the data received from the distributedterminals. This data includes as a minimum the above-mentioned ID.Preferably, the data may also include different condition data, e.g.body temperature, collected from different sensors on the animal. Thetime period between transmissions of data to the main terminal may beconstant, e.g. 5-10 min., and when the distributed terminals 6 are nottransmitting, they are set in an idle mode for saving battery power.

According to the system of the present invention, and as alreadyindicated, the main terminal 1 will always know the presence of all theanimals in the flock, simply by checking it the respective distributedterminals 6 transmit data and/or respond on a request. Any change in thepresence condition for an animal will be reported to the central systemcontroller described below. The system will also keep track of theposition of the bell sheep, and hence also the approximate position ofthe rest of the flock, due to the positioning system integrated in themain terminal and the fact that the animals in communication with thebell sheep have to be in the proximity of the bell sheep. Thepositioning system can be a GPS receiver or any other means forobtaining position information, e.g. means for fetching said informationfrom a mobile network.

This presence and positioning information, and possibly the additionaldata mentioned above, will then be available to the external world dueto the fact that the main terminal is connected to a public radiocommunication network like GSM, GPRS, UMTS, or WLAN.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, each individualanimal may roam from one flock to another and then start communicatingwith the bell sheep in a new flock. The roaming animal will then beregistered as a member of the new flock and deleted in the old flock,and repositioned according to the position of the bell sheep.

The system includes a central system controller which inter alia managesthe availability of the data in each flock and the roaming featurementioned above. The system controller is arranged to store (e.g. in adatabase) all animals registered in the system and associatedinformation, such as in which flock a respective animal is presentlylocalized, which sensors are arranged on the animal (if any), if thereare any alarms active for that animal, etc. The system controller keepstrack of to which flock each animal currently belongs in that when amain terminal of a flock detects signals transmitted from a new roaminganimal, it will relay the ID of the animal to the central systemcontroller and mark it as an ID of a new member of the flock. Thecentral system controller will then update the information in itsdatabases regarding to which flock the animal currently belongs.

The system controller includes middleware and provides an applicationinterface allowing a third part system developer to fetch data from theanimals and to configure the system. The functionalities of theapplication interface should preferably be at the 6/7 layer in the OSImodel, and the platform of the system controller is preferably based onEJB (Enterprise Java Beans).

As a user example, when a system user wants to fetch, e.g., the positionof a certain animal registered in the system, the user transmits arequest to the system controller. The system controller will determineto which flock the animal currently belongs, e.g. by a lookup in thedatabase, and relay the request to the main terminal of thecorresponding bell sheep over the radio communication system being used.The main terminal responds by returning the current position provided byits own GPS receiver. If the request is related to other data, the mainterminal will fetch the data for the animal of interest already storedin the is memory, or transmit a request to the distributed terminal ofthe animal. The middleware will also provide other features likestreaming of data, configuration of equipment, monitoring of parameters,etc.

Further, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,the system is provided with an alarm feature. An alarm associated withan animal will be activated when periodic signals from that animal failto occur within a predefined time period since last detected signal. Thealarm may, e.g., trigger sending of an e-mail or a short message to aperson being responsible for the animal.

The present invention utilizes the fact that short distance radiocommunication equipment has limited radio coverage area to detect whenan animal has lost its flock. This is also utilized to determine anapproximate position of an animal only by providing one or a limitednumber of animal(s) with positioning tracker(s) (GPS receiver) perflock.

1. A system of tracking individuals divided into one or more flockscomprising: at least one individual flock leader in each flock beingprovided with a first electronic device including a position tracker andradio communication equipment, the radio communication equipmentincludes at least a first transceiver operating in a public radiocommunication network, and a second transceiver operating in a shortdistance radio system, at least one other individual belonging to aflock being provided with the second electronic device, said secondelectronic device including at least a third transceiver also operatingin the short distance radio system and being arranged to communicatewith the second transceiver of said radio communication equipment, eachsecond electronic device being arranged to transmit at least anidentification code uniquely identifying said second device to a firstelectronic device present in the flock through the short distance radiosystem, thereby indicating the presence of the associated individual ina flock.
 2. A system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a systemcontroller arranged to communicate with the flock leader(s) of eachflock through the public radio communication network managing the systemand storing system information and information regarding all registeredindividuals of the system including at least the identity of eachindividual, to which flock each individual currently belongs, anindication of which individuals being the flock leader(s) of each flockand a public radio communication network address of all the flockleader(s) of the system.
 3. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein thetransmission of at least an identification code uniquely identifying therespective individuals to the flock leader(s) of the flock isaccomplished periodically.
 4. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein thefirst electronic device also includes a memory and a processor forstoring at least the identities of the individuals currently associatedwith the corresponding flock.
 5. A system as claimed in claim 1 whereineach electronic device is provided with sensors sensing data regardingthe condition of each individual.
 6. A system as claimed in claim 4wherein the data is transmitted from the individuals to the associatedflock leader together with the identification code and stored in thememory of the respective first electronic device.
 7. A system as claimedin claim 2 wherein the system controller includes an applicationinterface allowing a third party or a user of the system to fetch dataregarding the individuals.
 8. A system as claimed in claim 2 whereinwhen an individual roams from a first flock to a second flock, thesystem controller is updated so that the information regarding the flockbelonging of the individual is changed from the first flock to thesecond flock.
 9. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein an alarm isactivated for an individual when a predefined time period since lastreception of data from the individual to the flock leader of theindividual's associated flock has elapsed and no other flock leader ofthe system has received data from the individual within the same timeperiod.
 10. A system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the alarm initiatessending of an e-mail or a short message to a person responsible for theindividual for which the alarm is activated.
 11. A system as claimed inclaim 1 wherein the public radio communication network is a GSM, GPRS,UMTS or WLAN network and the public radio communication network addressis a telephone number or an IP address.
 12. A system as claimed in claim1 wherein the position tracker is a GPS receiver.
 13. A system asclaimed in claim 1 wherein the position tracker obtains its informationfrom the public radio communication network.
 14. A system as claimed inclaim 1 wherein the short distance radio system is a Bluetooth® systemor a system operating in the ISM frequency bands or other open frequencybands like 433 mHz.
 15. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein theindividuals are animals.
 16. A system as claimed in claim 15 wherein thesecond electronic device is formed as a collar or a light-weight earmarkattached to a respective ear of each animal.
 17. A system as claimed inclaim 1 wherein first electronic devices act as mobile base stations ina dynamic piconet structure of moving coverage areas limited by thecoverage areas of the second transceivers of the respective firstelectronic devices.
 18. A method for tracking individuals divided intoone or more flocks, comprising: providing at least one individual flockleader in each flock with a first electronic device, said firstelectronic device including a position tracker, a first transceiveroperating in a public radio communication network, and a secondtransceiver operating in a short distance radio system, and providing atleast one other individual belonging to a flock with a second electronicdevice, said second electronic device including a third transceiver alsooperating in the short distance radio system, to transmit from eachsecond electronic device at least an identification code uniquelyidentifying said second electronic device to said first electronicdevice present in the flock through the short distance radio system,thereby indicating the presence of the associated individual in a flock.19. A method as claimed in claim 18 further comprising communicatingfrom said first electronic device present in each flock with a systemcontroller through the public radio communication network, said systemcontroller managing the system and storing system information andinformation regarding all registered individuals of the system includingat least the identity of each individual, to which flock each individualcurrently belongs, an indication of which individuals being the flockleader(s) of each flock and a public radio communication network addressof all the flock leader(s) of the system.
 20. A method as claimed inclaim 18 further comprising transmitting periodically at least anidentification code uniquely identifying the respective individuals tothe first electronic device worn by flock leader(s) of the flock.
 21. Amethod as claimed in claim 18 wherein the first electronic device isstoring at least the identities of the individuals currently associatedwith the corresponding flock.
 22. A method as claimed in claim 18wherein each second electronic device is sensing data regarding thecondition of each individual, transmitting said data to the associatedfirst electronic device, whereupon the data is stored in a memory insaid first electronic device.
 23. A method as claimed in claim 19wherein when an individual roams from a first flock to a second flock,the system controller is updated so that the information regarding theflock belonging of the individual is changed from the first flock to thesecond flock.
 24. A method as claimed in claim 19 wherein an alarm isactivated for an individual when a predefined time period since lastreception of data from the individual to the flock leader of theindividual's associated flock has elapsed and no other flock leader ofthe system has received data from the individual within the same timeperiod.
 25. A method as claimed in claim 24 wherein the alarm initiatessending of an e-mail or a short message to a person responsible for theindividual for which the alarm is activated.